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Organisation Description

‘SEAM’ – Surface Engineering for Additive Manufactured parts for marine transportation is a Research and Innovation project being carried out by the Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering within the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Malta.

The aim of SEAM is to develop 3D printed metallic propeller blades to be used in the marine transportation industry. Metallic 3D printing involves additively layering or depositing molten metallic particles which bind together layer by layer to form a final 3D shape. Besides this, surface engineering processes, which modify the surfaces of materials, will be applied to improve the resistance to corrosion and erosion whilst improving the strength and anti-biofouling properties of the 3D printed blades being developed.

Two materials are being investigated in this project:  a titanium alloy and stainless-steel alloy.  These materials shall undergo similar testing and will be compared to each other to see which performs best as a marine propeller blade.

This video is aimed towards young students who are interested in taking up STEM subjects especially Engineering. The SEAM project is being carried out by two postgraduate students at the Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering within the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Malta.

This project is being done in collaboration with the Malta Council for Science and Technology, and South East University China.